About Me

Friday, May 1, 2015

Flash Fiction Challenge - X Meets Y

A little piece of flash fiction taken from Terrible Minds. The challenge was X meets Y. Care to guess which two stories I've mashed up? Enjoy!

The One

The sound of sword fall
surrounded him—the chink of metal hitting metal, and worse, metal hitting
flesh. The almost too soft sound of slicing was lost quickly to the cry
of death. This was the battlefield. None of those cries were quiet.
Each man’s last bellow was a strangled sound of an animal fighting to
hold onto the world, angry it had to leave.

Nick looked down at the
black blood covering his sword as the body before him fell. These creatures
didn’t cry like his comrades—they didn’t care if they died.

“Myron!” Nick screamed
to his friend and fellow fighter as a monster descended on him, “behind you!”

His friend turned as the
sharp blade of a broad axe crashed towards him. Nick couldn’t look away
as the sword ripped through his friend’s body. Myron dropped down; his
last breath something of a snarl and maybe a laugh. The beast may have
gotten him, but Myron’s steel protruded from his killer’s side. Nick
couldn’t help but smile a bit as the brute quickly fell.

His smile was short
lived, however. As he surveyed the hillside, he could see he and his
allies were losing. Most of his men lay lifeless on the ground, and only
a few of his comrades still stood in battle, but they were outnumbered, and
badly.

“Should we retreat?” He
called to Deckard, one of the few men left fighting.

“Never!” Deckard roared
as his blade ripped through another beast and he marched forward. “Not
after we’ve come this far! We won’t abandon our quest!”

“Alright,” Nick sighed
as he looked his friend in the eye. He was almost certain this meant
death, but who was he to argue?

Nick charged towards his
enemy, blade carried high, frantically striking and madly slicing at his foes.
He gripped his controller tightly, fingers blazing as he punched in
commands and watched another beast fall on the screen before him.

“Take that!” He said
gleefully as fought forward.His newly
upgraded blade was serving him well.“How
are you doing, Deck?”

“I’m out of healing
potions, but unwounded so far.”His
friend told him.

“Kastel?Rorly?Galen?”Nick asked to the only
other two men from his crew.

“I don’t think I’m going
to make it, man,” Kastel said.“I’m
about to die.I’ll have to catch you
guys on the next run.”

“Damn it,” Deckard
swore, “We’ll need at least three to make it into the lair.”

They only heard faint
static in their headsets.As Nick and
Deckard looked around for their friend, they watched Kastel crumble to the
ground near Rorly’s.

“I guess it’s just us,”
Nick said, adrenaline pumping through his veins and he continued slashing
through his enemies.“

“Nah, dude, it’s just
you.I’m hit.”

Nick’s eyes quickly
darted up to check his friend’s vitals displayed in the top corner of the
screen.They were all falling, and
fast.

“I’ll have to catch you
on the next run.You think you can make
it to the lair and get the treasure?”

“By myself?” Nick asked incredulously.

“You’re our best
fighter, man.”

“I don’t know,” Nick
said shakily as he kept fending off the monsters that were falling on him.

“If you don’t make it,
we’ll have to do this whole round again,” Deckard almost blamed him.

Nick felt the responsibility
weigh on his shoulders.He stared at the
screen before him with a warrior’s gaze.“Alright, man, I’ll do my best,” he told his friend and captain.

“You make it, man, I
know it,” Deckard rallied him.“All you have
to do it—”

But Nick never got to
hear what he had to do.He didn’t see
his friend fall, but his icon blinked off the screen.Nick was suddenly alone.

He fought madly through
the beast that attacked him.He was his
team’s best fighter, and he had a good amount of healing potion left.He was pretty sure he could stay alive, but
he wasn’t sure he’d be able to penetrate the hoard’s defenses.

Nick tried to stay
strong and regrouped his focus as Deckard’s words echoed through him: You’re our best fighter…You can make it…I
know…

As the words rang in
Nick’s ears, doubt clenched his heart, but he kept fighting.He felled another monster, and then watched
another fall, and then another.

Wait, Nick thought, he was almost
certain he hadn’t hit that one.Then he
knew he hadn’t struck the one that fell next.And next.Suddenly, the beasts
were dropping like fliers.Nick looked
down at one of their bodies.A slender,
sliver arrow protruded from the creature’s head.He widened his view and looked around.

At the corner of the
screen, Nick saw a white rider approached, releasing arrows with elf-like
ease.The beasts around him kept
dropping.

Where had this person come from?He wondered.Whoever they were, they were extremely
skilled with a bow.In fact, Nick had
never seen someone so talented.He was
able to clean up the last few monsters when the rider arrived and in a quick,
fluid motion hopped off the horse.

Nick swung his sword and
held it at the ready—he didn’t know if this person was a friend or foe.Despite the help the archer’d just given him,
he might be here to finish Nick and try to steal the prize he and his team had
fought so valiantly for.

“No hold on a second,”
Nick said, trying to sound brave and commanding.“What do you want here?”

The rider’s head cocked curiously
as they pulled off their helmet and a long cascade of blonde hair tumbled
down.

Nick couldn’t believe
it.The archer was a girl.And not just any girl, but the most beautiful
girl he’d ever seen.And not just in the
game world, but the real one too.

“These Darklings have
been terrorizing my woods for ages now,” she said as she pulled her arrows out
of their bodies.Nick had never seen
anyone do that before, “They killed my family a year ago.Now, I kill as many as I can.God, they smell awful,” she said, wiping her
arrows off on her pants.

Nick wasn’t quite sure
what to make of her.He knew some
players created elaborate character backstories, but she spoke about all this
as if it were real.When she looked up at him, he could
almost see the sorrow in her eyes.

Nick had to stop himself
from laughing.The same thing that brings everyone here, he wanted to say, the Dragonslair Quest.But for some reason, as he looked at her,
he couldn’t bring himself to say that.She was acting as if this world were so real.He knew some players did that, and suddenly,
he felt as if acknowledging this were a game would ruin it.Before he’d met Lilah, he’d thought players
like that were stupid and annoying.He
was just here because he liked to kill things. But Lilah made it seem magical.

“I was traveling with
several fellow warriors,” he said trying to sound like characters he’d seen in
fantasy movies, “we looking for a dragon’s treasure.”

“Oh, the dragon.Men come for that often,” she said, almost indifferently.

Of course, Nick thought,
that’s the only reason to be in this part
of the game.But again, he couldn’t
bring himself to say it.Lilah acted as
if this place really was her home.

The two began talking as
Lilah showed him the area.Nick couldn’t
believe how much she knew it and how deep her story for it went.She told him about things she’d done with her
family, hard winters when they’d had nothing to eat but bark and beets,
swimming in rivers in the summer sun.

“Nichols Jeffery!” His
mom’s voice shattered.Nick had almost
forgotten about the real world.“If you’re
still up playing that damned game…”Her
threat held ominous in the air.Nick
quickly told Lilah that he had to go.

“You have to go?Go where?”She asked like she didn’t understand.He couldn’t help himself, but he found that amusing.He chuckled softly and asked if he could see
her again.

“Of course,” she said,
looking away.Nick knew he’d been awake
too long because he was almost certain he saw her blushing.Avatar’s
don’t blush, he told himself rubbing his eyes.

“Do you ever play any
quests?”

“What?” She asked.

“Nicholas!” His mother
screamed again.He could hear her
marching up the stairs outside his room.

He got quickly to the
point, “where can I see you again?”

“Here,” she said, “I’m
always here.”

“Okay.Bye.”Nick said, slamming his laptop shut and diving into bed.

* * *

Over the next few weeks,
Nick spent more time online in the game than ever before.And he’d spent most of that time with Lilah just talking to her.She was the most fascinating person he’d ever
encountered.

“Dude,” Myron said as
they tried to take a pirate ship, “you spent almost 50 hours online last week.”

Nick winced
slightly.He’d forgotten his friends
could see his stats.

“Yeah,” he said offhandedly
as he swung onto the ship.

“Doing what?You haven’t completed any raids, gotten any
treasure, made any trades…”

“I was with some other
friends,” Nick said.

“You leaving us, bro?”
Rorly asked.

“No, of course not.”

“You better not,”
Deckard said as he ripped someone’s head off.

“Nice move,” another
player congratulated. “Nick, to your left, you’re about to get hit!”

Nick turned and watched
a sword get him.His avatar slumped to
the ground.

“Sorry, guys, I guess my
head’s just not in it.”Nick couldn’t
focus.Killing creatures and completing
quests just wasn’t the relaxation it was too him before.All he could think about was spending more
time with Lilah.Talking with her was
more comforting than killing these creatures now.

“You coming back in,
Nick?”

Nick waffled for a
moment, considering if he should reenter there fray.“Sorry guys, I think I’m done tonight.”

“You better not log back
in at Dragonslair,” Myron said.“What
are you doing over there, anyhow?”

“I told you guys,” Nick
defended, “I’m with another friend.”

“Does this friend have
boobs?” Myron jabbed, “you know, she’s probably really a dude, right?There are lots of guys on here that do that—”

Nick logged out.He couldn’t take any more of Myron’s
nagging.He couldn’t take any more of
his mother’s nagging either, or his shitty boss’s.He needed to get away from it all, and the
only way he could do that was with Lilah.

Nick did sign back in
and go to Dragonslair.He found Lilah gathering
berries in the forest.

“Hey,” he said as he
approached her.

“Hi,” she said, turning
and smiling brightly, “do you want some berries?They’re wonderfully ripe right now.”

Nick didn’t even know
picking berries was an option in the game, or eating them, but he couldn’t say
no to Lilah as she held a fistful of blackberries out for him.

“These aren’t poisonous,
are they?” he joked as he punched in the command to take the berries.He watched his avatar on the screen ingest
them.

“Aren’t they delicious?”
Lilah asked as she ate some herself.

“Yeah,” Nick said before
he could even think about it.And he
suddenly realized he could taste the berries.He shook his head and rubbed his eyes.He had to start getting more sleep.But every time he laid in bed, all he could think about was Lilah.He knew he was going to have to do something about
that.

“Hey,” he asked as they
walked along the river.“Where are you from?”

“What do you mean?” she
asked as she sat down on a wide rock in the sun.Nick followed suit.

“Lilah,” he said,
reaching out to her, but she jumped up and moved away. “Hey, I didn’t mean to
hurt your feeling.”

“How did you expect me
to feel when you told me we were a game!I thought you were really my friend, Nick!I thought this meant something!”

“I didn’t say we were a game, I said this is a game.It’s because we mean something that I brought
it up.”

She calmed down a bit,
but stared at him fiercely.

“Lilah, please, you mean
more to me than anyone…that’s why…look, I know people don’t usually do this,
but, I wanted to talk to you in the real world.”

“I don’t know what you
mean by real, Nick, this is real.”

Nick bit his lip and
took a frustrated breath.Her attitude
was making him reconsider his whole move.

“Whatever, Lilah, fine, just
forget I said anything.If you want to
pretend that this world is real—”

“What do you mean pretend, Nick?”She stepped towards him looking concerned.“Can’t you hear the running water?”

Nick huffed again,
really not in the mood for this, “Of course I can hear the water,” he
grumbled.But as he said it, he realized
it’d never sounded quite like it did now.

“Can’t you feel the sun
on your skin?Can’t you smell the moist
earth?”

Nick was about to tell
Lilah he didn’t know what she was talking about, when he suddenly felt like he
could feel the sun, he could smell that earth.I really need to start getting more
sleep, he told himself.

“Can’t you feel this?”
she said, reaching out to him.As he
watched her reach out to him on the screen, he could swear he felt her hand
rest on his arm.

Nick wanted to say no,
but he couldn’t.He did feel her
touching him.He nodded yes.

“Then how can you tell
me this isn’t real?” She asked, stepping up to kiss him.

And suddenly, Nick didn’t
care if it were real or not.

* * *

Any idea what two stories I had? It was The Princess Bride and The Matrix. I hope I did them justice and would love to know what you all think.